Barcelona 2015

EuCornea Press Release, Tuesday 29 September

EUCORNEA A MAJOR POINT OF REFERENCE FOR CORNEA SPECIALISTS

Corneal experts and researchers from Europe and further afield met in Barcelona, Spain for the 6th EuCornea Congress which was attended by 784 delegates.

François Malecaze MD, President of EuCornea, welcomed delegates to Barcelona for the 6th EuCornea Congress at the Opening Ceremony. He said Barcelona held special memories for EuCornea, as it was here that the organisation was launched in 2009 during the XXVII Congress of the ESCRS. Dr Malecaze was one of the founding members of the society along with Harminder Singh Dua, José Güell and Vincenzo Sarnicola.

“Six years ago, we started from a blank canvas with a shared commitment and enthusiasm. Due to the hard work of all our members the society has gone from strength to strength and it is now firmly established as a major point of reference for cornea specialists,” he said.

The EuCornea Medal lecture was presented by Professor John Dart, UK. Cicatrising conjunctivitis remains one of the most challenging causes of ocular surface disease today, and early diagnosis and treatment are necessary to prevent vision loss or blindness, said Prof Dart.

In a broad overview of the incidence, clinical features and treatment options for the disease, Prof Dart said that cicatrising conjunctivitis remains a major therapeutic challenge. Although early diagnosis and treatment are important, most individual clinicians see few cases and therefore may fail to recognise the clinical features in the early stages of disease which may result in delayed or suboptimal treatment.

EuCornea also took another major step forward in its development with the news that a new online journal dedicated to the field of corneal research is set to be launched.

“I am excited to be able to announce that we have received approval for the launch of our own journal very soon, which will be called JCornea and will serve a real need in the ophthalmological community,” said Prof Harminder Singh Dua . Prof Dua said that an editorial board has now been constituted and that the journal will be fully peer-reviewed and will be open-access.